Conventionally, a thermoelectric converter that has a plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements disposed between first and the second substrates disposed facing each other, and the plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements are connected with a front surface pattern formed on the first substrate and a back surface pattern formed on the second substrate has been proposed in a Patent Document 1, for example.
Specifically, among sectional areas of the thermoelectric conversion elements in the thermoelectric converter in a plane parallel to planes of the first and the second substrates, a sectional area of an end portion connected to the back surface pattern is configured to be larger than an area of an end portion connected to the front surface pattern and an area of an intermediate portion connecting the respective end portions.
According to this, effects of a thermoelectric conversion occurring at an interface between the back surface pattern and the thermoelectric conversion element can be increased as compared with a case where the thermoelectric conversion element is fixed to the sectional area of the intermediate portion. Further, a thermal resistance of the thermoelectric conversion element is suppressed from being reduced as compared with a case where the thermoelectric conversion element is fixed to the sectional area of the end portion of the back surface pattern side, and the temperature difference between the first and the second substrates can be suppressed from being reduced.
Such a thermoelectric converter is manufactured as follows. First, a thermoelectric conductor block is disposed on the second substrate to which the back surface pattern is formed. Thereafter, a plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements are formed by separating the thermoelectric conductor block from the second substrate side and an opposite side by using a dicing cutter or the like. At this time, a tapered cutter of which a width of a cutting portion is continuously narrowed from both sides toward a distal end is used as the dicing cutter. Thereby, when cutting the thermoelectric conductor block, the thermoelectric conversion element of which the sectional area of the end portion of the back surface pattern side is larger than the sectional area of the end portion of the front surface pattern side and the sectional area the intermediate portion side can be formed. Then, by disposing the first substrate to which the front surface pattern is formed on the opposite side of the second substrate to sandwich each thermoelectric conversion element, the thermoelectric converter is manufactured.